Wako Works of Art is very pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Nana Yokoi. This will be artist’s first solo show at the gallery, and will feature her new oil paintings and pencil drawings.

In her drawings, Yokoi carefully unravels a magical realistic tableau that is fraught with both idyllic and morbid imagery, such as serpents, mermaids, girls, butterflies, moths, beetles, birds, tarts, candles and flames, rendered by her delicate lines and thoughtful use of colors; her subjects can be observed carrying out various menial activities such as injecting liquid, taking a pill, lighting wreaths. The minimal use of elements and space results in a kind of uncertainty that compels the viewer to seek more. Meanwhile, the new paintings in this exhibition such as Candle (2012) and rabbit (2012) depict a solitary female figure in what seems to be an act of defense; the figures in the paintings are set off from the drawings with the use of a solid background color, which sets the mood. In both forms, Yokoi captures a moment where her subjects are enraptured in preserving their own being.

Nana Yokoi
Born in 1983 in Aichi, Nana Yokoi graduated from Tama Art University in 2006, where she concentrated in oil painting. Yokoi was one of three artists invited to show in the fourth installment of the gallery’s from/to exhibition program in the summer of 2007, in which she presented animation films made by capturing and framing various stages of her pencil drawings. In 2009, she participated in a group show Incidental Affairs: Contemporary Art of Transient States at Suntory Museum in Tempozan, Osaka.